Homebrew Saturdays: Dungeons and Dragons / Fate Core Smash Up!

I like Fate Core. I like it a lot, and this is something I've just started to realize. Until a few years ago I'd never had a group that was willing to expand past D&D very much. We made a couple attempts, branching out into Shadow Run once, and again into Warhammer 40k Inquisition. Both were great fun, but both systems felt clumsy and full of rules that were just there to be rules. And so we always came back to D&D, or to Pathfinder - which is so similar that I consider it part of the D&D family.

But then I decided that I was going to run an Urban Fantasy game, using the Dresden Files Fate Core book as a base. It wasn't going to take place in the Dresdenverse, but the system had a bunch of pre existing talents and supernatural abilities that fit into any urban fantasy setting you could think of.

The game is a blast. I love it. And someday I'll talk about the first session when my player gave me an "oh shit" moment about thirty seconds in.

But this post is not about my urban fantasy. It's actually about my Curse of Strahd game that I started about six weeks later.

I recruited players from a fantastic Discord D&D group that I'm part of. Its small enough to feel like I have something to contribute and not be lost in the noise, but big enough that games are fairly constant. When you want to start something new, it's easy to pick up some players and go. I love it.

I advertised my game as a heavily modified version of Curse of Strahd. I warned that people shouldn't come to it expecting things to play out like they do in the book, that some things would be wildly different, completely changed, or even cut entirely. People asked me if I was running any homebrew content, and I shrugged, "not really. It's mostly going to be 5th edition rules."

So I started talking to my players, coming up with character concepts, back stories, things like that. The game wasn't going to start for another two weeks due to some scheduling issues, so we had plenty of time to get session zero out in text chat.

Then, a week and a half in, I lay in bed at three thirty in the morning and had an epiphany. What if I took the aspect system that I love so much from Fate, and throw it into Dungeons and Dragons?! 5th Edition even has Inspiration points, which I could totally tweak a bit to work just like Fate points!

I should really stop listening to my brain when it pokes me at three am...

Anyways, this is the system I came up with (and my thoughts on what the system accomplishes in italics)...

Mute Banshee's D&D/Fate Collision!

1. Inspiration points work as Fate points. You can spend an inspiration point to get advantage on a roll like normal. You can also spend them to make a statement about the game (up to DM discretion). Example, the dungeon master introduces a massive library that will take years to search through. But you spend an inspiration point and say, "the library has a magical cataloging device that reads your mind, and shines a light to the exact book you need."
• The idea here is that by allowing players to make statements, you give them a bit of control over the world. I am a firm believer that players are more committed when they have influence over the setting.
2. Every player starts with 3 inspiration points at the beginning of an adventure.
• These will be needed to fuel the system below. Why three? It seemed like a decent amount without coming up with a reason that different characters would have different amounts.
3. You have a list of traits. Traits are short phrases about your character that can be used in interesting ways, "Violence is my solution to everything." "I want to protect my brother at all costs." Things like that. 
• I love that Fate has a player start with seven different traits like these that describe their character. I think it makes for a much more in depth character than one that has a simple bond and flaw. That being said - 5th editions background system is worlds better than any edition before it.
4. Every character starts with 3 traits.
• Maybe I just really like the number three... I thought about going with five, which I think is better. But I was remembering that I had to pitch the system to a bunch of D&D players. I felt like I was already changing up a lot, and five traits seemed to be asking a bit much.
5. The Dungeon Master can use traits to suggest actions to characters. For example, in a tense diplomatic situation where tact is super important, the DM might suggest to the character with "Violence is my solution to everything" get in a fight, ruining or delaying the negotiations. You can always refuse a suggestion by spending an inspiration point. But if you accept the suggestion you gain an inspiration point. 
• The idea here is that stories survive off of conflict, and failure is often more interesting than success.
6. Other players can give you one of their fate points to make a suggestion as well. If you refuse a character suggestion, you do not have to spend a Fate point.
• This gives everyone at the table a chance to affect the game in ways the normally couldn't, but prevents them from making decisions for another person's character.
7. Goals. Characters list out normal and long term goals. When a normal goal is completed, the party gains a quarter of the experience needed to reach next level. Normal goals are accomplished often, once every 5-8 sessions. When long term goals are completed, the party gains a level. Completing long term goals happens rarely. Each character might only accomplish one or two during an entire campaign/adventure path. 
• This helps everyone bring their own thing to the table. Sure, we are playing Curse of Strahd, but one player is also hunting down a magical flute played by the God of Music himself, and one player is tracking down the hunter that slayed their tribes animal guide... the last living descendant of the Great, Clever Rabbit. 

Typing this system out still fills me with a bit of glee. I designed it with the idea that it would drive story, and not just the story I am telling (which is the least important story at the game), but the stories that my players are telling.

I dropped the system in game chat, we talked about it, and players decided that it sounded pretty great. So we did all the needed preparation before the first session. I had every character's traits written up on roll20 so that everyone could see which traits they could make suggestions on. Most of what I run is theater of the mind until combat starts, so the only time I switched screens was when I needed a battle map.

Guess what happened? The system went completely unused. Unused by me. Unused by my players. About five minutes into the first session I settled into my D&D comfort zone, and everyone else joined me. By the time the characters had climbed a hill, following a path made out of bone as fog closed in on them from all directions, the homebrew was completely forgotten. And it remained so until the end of Death House.

Then one of my players said, "so, what are you doing with that homebrew system you made?"

And I thought about it for a second, and had a realization: Fate was made for those rules; Dungeons and Dragons wasn't. Which isn't to say that I couldn't have forced it, and it isn't even to say that the rules wouldn't have been fun. But if I wanted to use them... why wasn't I just playing Fate? I could easily have pitched my game as a "Fate Core game running a modified version of The Curse of Strahd." The Discord group would have bitten on that as much as they did my D&D pitch.

D&D has a lot of mechanics already, and the head space between the two systems is different. And so I shrugged and said, "well, I thought I really liked the system. But we aren't using it, and there's already a lot going on. Everyone okay with dropping it?"

Everyone agreed and we moved on.

The lesson here? Create all the homebrew content you want... but pay attention to when it just isn't working. And if it isn't adding fun to your sessions... well, there's a phrase used in writing all the time: don't be afraid to kill your darlings. I suggest using a chain saw, and hiding body parts in your cellar. Just don't hide the heart under your floor boards.